


Thievery in Many Different Colours

by Koayyy



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game), Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Developing Friendships, Families of Choice, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spoilers, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-18 22:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17589596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koayyy/pseuds/Koayyy
Summary: In preparation for the eventual fight on the ship, the Phantom Thieves march into Mementos for training. Or that was the plan, until they're greeted by a familiar large crack in one of the walls, shining blue light that beckons a visit.





	1. White

**Author's Note:**

> I've worked on this for far too long, jeez. First chapter is the longest one by far but really it's all just set-up, don't be fooled, none of the other chapters will be as long,,,,
> 
> This fic is technically set after the P5/Gbf collab event story, but knowledge of that isn't exactly necessary. There's also very vague spoilers for gbf's main quest and P5's story, and I'll try to warn of spoilers in the beginning notes of each chapter.
> 
> Big thanks to my beta Faut who's my best friend and I will die for him. Anyway enjoy!

At first, the blue light was nothing but a speck in the corner of his eye, and it doesn’t alarm him immediately. He rams the Monabus into a Shadow, and their party members swiftly take care of it with just their melee weapons and guns. With the Shadow disposed of, they crowd back into the Monabus, and he turns the steering wheel to the light that caught his attention.

Once he’s close enough to fully take in what the blue light meant, he steps on the breaks. The Monabus skids to a stop, and everyone previously making conversation at the back of the bus stop as well.

“Hey, Joker, what’s the hold- Wait, is that-!” Skull cuts himself off as he leans his body into the front seat, squinting his eyes to take a closer look. Mona, Panther, Skull, and Fox are the only ones that don’t sound surprised when Joker gives the signal to get out of the Monabus.

“Whaat’s that?” Oracle sounds awed at the sight of the large crack in the wall, and hops into Prometheus without a second thought.

“Is that maybe…?” Panther sounds hopeful as she stares at the blue light.

“Have you guys seen this before?” Queen asks the question that’s probably not just invading her mind, but Noir and Oracle’s too. They were never there when they went to the Sky Realm, after all.

“We encountered this a long time ago, before Kaneshiro’s Palace,” Mona says back in his not-bus form, and doesn’t give any more information than that. Joker doesn’t say anything and instead waits for anything from Oracle. He can hear multiple different beeps coming from Prometheus.

“Sky Realm?” Oracle’s voice comes from the speakers, and Joker lets the smile take over his face. Skull whoops in the distance.

“Come on, let’s go!” he cheers while casually walking closer to the crack in the wall, looking back at the rest expectantly.

“Skull! Be careful!” Mona scolds while taking a few steps closer himself.

“It’s fine! We’ve been there once before!” Skull exclaims, completely eager to go back there again, which is understandable when they barely stayed there last time.

“But there’s no telling that it’ll be the same, whatever it contains,” Noir speaks up, her voice sounds gentle yet firm in her concern.

“To be able to see that view again…” Fox mutters to himself, finishing with a little sigh of joy. His fox tail is waging from side to side.

“Are we sure this a good idea?” Queen says with a forward step, her sharp gaze fully focused on Joker. Her hands may be left beside her hips, but there is something in the way she stands that suggests that she’ll jump into combat without a second thought.

“Mhm,” he lets out along with a nod. “let’s go see them again.”

“Aw yeah!” Skull pumps a hand up in the air.

“You heard him,” Panther says as her grip closes around Noir’s arm, clearly equally as excited.

Oracle jumps down and Prometheus disappears without a sound. She looks over to Mona with her hands clasped behind her, her gaze indiscernible behind her incredible goggles.

“You okay with this, Mona?” she asks, cocking her head to the whooping Skull.

“Last time was a bit of a mess, but…” Mona starts, arms crossed and tail swishing from side to side. “We at least know what to expect, and I can understand their excitement of meeting old friends again.” He finishes while untangling his arms, his eyes on Joker’s little smile.

“If you’re sure,” is all Oracle replies with. Queen still looks worried in the distance, but as Joker walks forward, the rest still follow him.

He stands straight as he faces the crack in the wall. The girls stiffen as the blue light glows brighter, and in a less than a moment, their surroundings are swallowed by blue and they’re sweeped into another world. The pulsating veins in Mementos continue to beat to the rhythm of a heartbeat, not once noticing the disappearance of the Thieves.

 

* * *

 

They land on a large grass field, just like last time. But as much as it looks the same at first glance, their surroundings feel different. Joker doesn’t remember seeing that town before, or the larger buildings with various working machinery in the distance. They had landed on Port Breeze last time, which had nothing of the sort.

“This is totally fantasyland!” Oracle exclaims as she leans forward, looking over the edge of the island and seeing the blue skies and all the little islands floating around.

“I know right!” Skull exclaims in reply, not caring for her physical space as he puts a hand on Oracle’s shoulder. She doesn’t seem to mind it at the moment, completely taken by the sight of endless sky.

Joker looks over to Queen and Noir, the two still seem to be in shock at the sight in front of them.

“That certainly explains why it’s called the ‘Sky Realm’,” Queen mutters and Noir nods.

Fox is framing the sight of the large buildings with his fingers, and Mona looks like he’s busy trying to identify where they’ve landed, Panther is just enjoying the breeze alongside Skull and Oracle, so Joker decides to walk to Queen and Noir.

“A sight, isn’t it?” He can understand their shock and awe, he himself was speechless when they paid their first unplanned visit.

“It is,” Noir agrees readily, turning to face him.

“I’d never thought I would see floating islands like this, how does it all work?” There Queen goes, already questioning things right after her feelings are sorted and pushed aside.

“You can ask Djeeta later,” is all he provides before walking over to Mona. He catches their confusion at who he’s referring to, but instead directs his attention to Mona.

“Can you figure out where we are?” he asks, once he’s close enough.

“They explained the various islands such a long time ago,” he starts, one of his ears pressed flat against his own head as he thinks. “I’m afraid even I’ve forgotten most of the information.”

Joker nods, then turns to the group closer to the edge of the island. “Oracle?”

“Yes!” She immediately responds, straightening up in her spot with two fingers to her forehead in a salute. He chuckles at the sight for a second.

“Can you identify this island?” he repeats to her, and she gets on her work immediately as various holograms appear around her figure. Even a name would do, it’s better than having no information at all.

Everyone stares at her as she taps and looks around her holograms, Skull even tries to take a peek from above her shoulder. It takes a moment of unidentifiable scrolling alphabets until she says anything.

“Golonzo Island?”

Well, that’s a start.

“Go… Golonzo?” Skull repeats in confusion, lifting his gaze from the unreadable holograms. “Never heard of that name.”

“Is there any other information you can find?” Queen presses, taking a few steps towards her.

“Not… really,” she says, visibly nervous. “There’s a lot of things, but I don’t really know what they mean…”

The group is plunged into thought, even Fox has come back to them to ponder. Queen claps her hands to get their attention.

“At any case, we should look around to get more information,” she says, keeping her palms together as she looks at the rest.

“That’s probably for the best,” Mona agrees while nodding.

“We did stumble upon Lyria-chan and the others just by following their ship,” Panther says, agreeing as well.

“Well?” Skull asks, cocking his head at Joker.

“Let’s go,” he says along with a hand gesture, and everyone follows. After a bit of discussion, they decide to head into the part of town closest to them. The moment they enter the streets, Fox in captivated by the scenery around them.

“The trees along with the white bricks really brings out the green in this area,” he says, eagerly looking around them as they walk. Oracle and Noir are in a similar state, taking in as much as they could while still moving.

Skull is ogling at some of the Erune and Draph passersby, which earns him a good punch from Panther. As he grumbles about how he’s just taking what’s been given to him, Queen is busy accessing their surroundings.

Joker and Mona are the only ones paying attention to where they’re heading towards and what’s actually in front of them.

“Guys, focus!” Mona hisses, but the effect doesn’t seem to get to the rest as he intended. Joker gestures and he turns to face him.

“Let them be,” he says once he has Mona’s attention. Honestly, if he wasn’t the leader, he would probably also be joining Fox, Oracle, and Noir in looking around the place.

As they go deeper into the district, he wonders if they should’ve searched for a market first. Finding the ever-present Siero might be more fruitful than finding a crew that might not even be on the same island as them at the moment.

“Oh, those kids…?” Noir suddenly calls out, pointing at a group of teenagers nearby. The teens are making use of an empty space in front of several houses, and seem to be play fighting.

“Hyah!” A boy yells as he swings a sword. A girl beside him stops him after several swings.

“No no, that’s not how Djeeta fights! She does it like this!” The girl swings her own wooden sword a few times for him to see.  

“No! It’s like this!” The boy swings again, more identical to his previous swings but with a few small changes. The girl is stubborn though, and the two keep on arguing on the right technique that Djeeta performs as she swings a sword. When was Djeeta’s name known to kids like this?

That’s when his thoughts are interrupted and two people near them make themselves known. Joker is surprised that he didn’t notice their presence sooner, considering how close their pair were to their own group. Just several steps, to be precise.

“The crew’s really gotten popular, huh,” Rackam comments as he watches the two kids bicker, a lazy hand placed on his hip.

“It’s unusual, how the story traveled from one person to another, and how quickly the crew became known during your absence…” A young looking boy with white hair says in thought, twirling the elegant wooden paddle(?) in his hands a little.

“Did it start from here?” Rackam asks, directing his attention to the boy. It looks like he doesn’t realize that they’re in earshot yet.

“It’s hard to say,” the boy starts, pausing his hands. “it’s not like there’s a definite source, and the growth seemed almost natural at first.”

“So not even you know,” Rackam says, looking slightly disappointed. The boy chuckles with a hand covering his mouth.

“I may be an observer, but I don’t have all the answers,” the boy says, playful yet with a hint of something else hidden in his tone.

“Yeah but-”

“Rackam!” Skull suddenly yells out, and Joker mentally sighs at the loss of what he deemed to be an interesting conversation. The rest of the Phantom Thieves snap into attention when the two turn their way.

Rackam looks over to them and has to do a double take at the sight of them. He doesn’t do anything as he lets Rackam splutter for a moment.

“Skull? Wha- Why are you guys back!?” he says a bit too loudly, and a few of the Phantom Thieves tense when they hear the name ‘Skull’ come out of Rackam’s mouth. The young boy beside him looks at them, then tilts his head in confusion.

“You know these people?” The young boy asks, looking at Rackam again. There’s something in his gaze that Joker can’t describe, so he grabs the thought and throws it to the back of his head for the time being.

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you about them before?” Rackam says, the hand on his hip moving to rub the back of his neck. “The group that helped us save Vyrn and take down that Dantalion guy.”

It takes a moment, but understanding soon appears on the young boy’s face.

“Oh, these are the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?” the boy says, disbelief evident in his tone.

“What does that mean?” Skull picks up and asks, without thinking twice about it as usual. Joker can hear a small sigh from Queen despite the waves of nervousness coming from the back of the group.

“I just find it surprising that these kids are the ones that ultimately took down the Primal Beast of Stress,” the young boy says in a as-a-matter-of-fact tone, along with a little smile that hints of something more.

“What was-!” Skull raises his voice, his mental buttons pressed just by the tone, but Rackam hurriedly jumps in.

“Hey hey, it’s fine, he didn’t mean whatever you’re thinking!” Rackam waves his hands around a little as he says it, then levels a half-hearted glare at the young boy.

“Noa, not everyone likes your observations,” Rackam scolds, and the young boy -Noa?- does nothing but laugh a little.

“Sorry, I didn’t think it was offensive,” the young boy says, filled with more amusement than genuine sorry. “I’m Noa, an old friend of Rackam’s.”

“Don’t say old.” Rackam immediately reacts as if on instinct, and Noa chuckles again.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he says with a smile. “but you _are_ older, compared to that time.”

“Noa!”

“Um,” Queen finally steps in, both figuratively and literally as she takes a step forward. “I believe some of us haven’t met before?”

“Oh, looks like you’ve got some new members of your own,” Rackam says, not exactly concerned about the new faces around. “Come on, we can properly introduce ourselves on the way to the Grandcypher.”

“The Grandcypher?” is what Oracle first latches onto. Fox explains to her that the Grandcypher is an airship that skyfarers use and basically live in, as they’re adventurers. She squeals a bit in excitement.

Queen looks to Joker, concern in her eyes.

“We can trust them,” he says while waving off her concern. It doesn’t do much effect on it as expected, but she complies, at least.

And so the Phantom Thieves follow Rackam and Noa to where the Grandcypher is. On the way, Rackam tells the new faces that he’s the helmsman of the ship while Noa teases him.

“Oh yeah, Noa here is a Primal,” Rackam says, completely carefree while Joker and a few other Thieves tense in response.

“A-a Primal!?” Panther practically screams in surprise.

“This little guy is one of those All-powerful things!?” Skull also screams, and Joker is kind of surprised that he still remembers that information.

“The Primal Beast of Shipwright, to be precise,” Noa corrects, his index finger in the air. He doesn’t seem any bothered by their surprise, and Rackam does the further explaining. That not all Primal Beasts are big and bad like Dantalion, and there are some that aren’t even that powerful either. It’s certainly new information to them.

They reach the Grandcypher without much further incident. The ship is held in a more enclosed area, propped up by a structure as a few people are seen busy high up near the wings of the ship. They seem to be detaching it, from what Joker can see.

Rackam explains that they’re getting some upgrades done and have to take the wings off to do them, all the blueprints and work approved by another reliable crew mate named ‘Mahira’ and Noa himself. They’re lead into the ship without much incident, other than some of them looking around with excitement.

“Most of the crew members are out in town,” Rackam says when they are led into the living room-like area, big enough to fit at least a dozen people. “including Djeeta, so make yourselves at home for now. I gotta check on how the upgrades are doing.” He leaves right after he’s done talking, Noa doesn’t follow.

They each take their own places, just like all the other times that the group is together. Joker sits on the couch, Skull and Oracle quickly taking their places beside him. Panther and Fox sit on the couch across from him while Mona jumps onto the coffee table. Noir pulls a chair from the tables nearby to sit on, and Queen remains standing while leaning against the table. She has her arms crossed, her posture filled with the most nerves compared to the rest.

Noa doesn’t seem to be paying attention to them, and Joker can’t really make out what he’s doing on the other side of the room. All he can see is that he’s facing the wall.

“Soooo,” Oracle is the one to break the silence, swinging her body from side to side as she drags the vowel with a hint of excitement. “what did we miss?”

“All right,” Mona says, sitting down onto the coffee table. “let’s get everyone on the same page.”

“Get comfortable, there’s a bit to get through,” Joker says, crossing his arms and legs while he sweeps his eyes across everyone. Some of them shift their postures a little.

Mona does the bulk of explaining, but Joker, Skull, Panther, and Fox all get a bit of their own perspectives and comments into the story as well. A lot of time is spent explaining the things they understood from exchanging information with the crew. They spend a bit of time talking about the few people they know from this world too.

“Lyria-chan is the sweetest girl I’ve ever met!” Panther exclaims with her palms in the air.

“I got with Rackam pretty well, he’s a laid-back kinda guy,” Skull says, his hands crossed and trapped between the back of the coach and the back of his head.

“Katalina has a stunning figure. She would be splendid as a painting model,” is all Fox offers when asked.

“You and your nude paintings…” Oracle mutters to herself. Unfortunately, Fox overhears her and practically squawks at the reply.

“Djeeta’s a nice conversation partner,” Joker says, thinking back to when he gave her coffee tips. He starts to wonder if she got any better at making it, maybe he can sample some of it later?

He snaps out of his thoughts when Mona gets back to the story, and from there they help Vyrn, defeat Dantalion, then went back home when the crack reappeared. They definitely had a hot pot party a few days later, but that’s not relevant to the conversation right now.

“If we’re using the last time as a base, then it means we need to help solve something for us to go back?” Queen says, she uncrosses her arms but her posture is still filled with nerves.

“It’s a possibility,” Mona says, licking the back of his paw.

“But…” Noir starts, tightening her intertwined fingers placed on her lap. “what if there’s nothing to solve?”

The group grows silent at that, no one speaking as they processed her words. Joker hears Noa chuckling in the distance, but he has a feeling it’s not directed at nor to them.

“Something will happen if we stick with these skyfarers!” Skull claims, thought it’s filled with panic. “Right?”

“Worrying about it won’t speed up the process,” Fox says, then he looks to Joker. “time didn’t pass in our world while we were here, did it?”

It takes a moment as he thinks. “No, we entered and exited on the same day.”

“Then I say we just take it easy!” Oracle exclaims, sounding absolutely delighted at the prospect of relaxation.

“You mean we just, stay close to them until something happens?” Panther asks, sounding hopeful and excited. Joker can’t exactly disagree with her excitement.

“Wouldn’t we be intruding-” Queen starts, but she’s quickly cut off by a new member to the conversation.

“I’m sure Djeeta would be happy if you stayed,” Noa says with a smile. Joker has no idea when he had moved, but now he’s standing behind him with his arms placed on the back of the couch. His head is leaned forward, so Joker can clearly see his expression if he tilts his head a bit and looks up.

“Are you sure?” Skull asks with hesitance, tapping his foot against the floor when he’s nervous as usual.

“Do you believe you have anywhere else to stay?” Noa fires back, and the whole group doesn’t answer. Joker watches as the uncertainty appears on their faces, and he’s about to open his mouth to state his answer and reassure everyone, when Noa says something bizarre.

“The Grandcypher doesn’t mind a couple of new members either,” Noa says, and everyone in the room turns to look at him. He said it as if the Grandcypher was a person, and there was no hesitation in his voice either.

“Er,” Skull lets out, smartly.

“Hm? Did I say something wrong?” Noa asks, completely clueless at what’s bothering them.

“You..” Noir starts, but she doesn’t get to finish her sentence.

“You speak as if the Grandcypher is a person,” Mona talks over her, looking at Noa as if he had grown a second head.

Noa blinks once, “And what’s wrong with that?”

“Er, everything?” Skull says, which earns him a shove with an elbow from Panther.

“A ship can’t possibly speak,” Fox says, and despite how weird he is, Joker is inclined to agree with him in this situation.

“Yeah! Airships are just ships, right?” Panther asks, sounding the complete opposite of confident in the words that just came from her mouth.

A moment passes where no one can confirm her words, then Noa bursts into chuckles.

“I’m the Primal Beast of Shipwright,” Noa says, his tone suggests that he’s completely proud of himself. “it only makes sense if I can talk to what I build, correct?”

“So the ship speaks…” Oracle says, more to herself than to the room at large, but the rest still seem to be busy processing the information to answer her anyway.

“All I hear is humming of machinery from here,” Queen says, tilting her head to one side.

“You think we can hear it too if we press an ear to the floor?” Skull asks, his tone too excited for how stupid the idea sounds.

“Why don’t you try, Skull?” Panther teases, pushing him a little with a hand on his back as if to encourage him.

“Wait, why me?” he whines as Panther pushes him again.

“Because you suggested it!” Oracle jumps in.

“Really?” he asks, looking at everyone in the room. When his gaze stops on Joker, he joins in the fun as well.

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Joker says with a wave of his hand. Mona sighs from his place on the coffee table, probably resigning himself to his fate.

“Come on, even Joker’s saying it!” Oracle pushes again, and Joker steals a glance at Noa to see him looking on in amusement.

“Argh, fine!” It takes Skull a moment to finally give in, but when he does, he gets off the couch in one smooth motion. He lowers himself until he’s lying on the floor, his ear pressed to the wooden floorboards. When he yells that he can’t hear anything a moment later, Noa finally bursts out in laughter.

“You knew!” Skull gets himself off the floor and yells, pointing an accusing finger at Noa, who looks like he’s trying his best to stop his laughter.

“Of course he did,” Queen says with mock exasperation. There’s a hint of amusement in her tone, as if she’s trying not to laugh as well.

“I can’t believe you fell for it.” Mona doesn’t sound like he’s surprised.

“Well how was I supposed to know!” Skull yells, and Joker can see Noir is trying very hard to keep her giggles muffled behind a hand.

“So you’re weak to peer pressure,” Noa says as if to himself, like what he said is an observation and nothing more.

“What was that!?” Skull yells, probably more out of embarrassment than out of genuine anger, but it still comes out loud and accusatory.

“I just say what I see,” Noa says, and there’s a certain smugness in his smile that feels familiar.

“Why you-” Skull raises a fist, and Panther stands up in alert, ready to stop him. Joker does too, not that he doesn’t trust Skull to restrain himself, but just in case anything happens.

And wouldn’t that be a strange scene to stumble into. Noa lounged on the back of the couch, looking amused as Joker blocks him from Skull’s raised fist. The rest of the group are either slightly on alert or not bothered at all.

It would be a strange scene to see, and someone stumbles right into it.

“Hm?” a questioning hum comes from the doorway, and they turn to see Captain Djeeta herself. She’s standing in the doorway with several paper bags in her arms, blinking in confusion as Lyria pokes her head out from behind her.

The room is silent until Vyrn looks over from above Djeeta’s shoulder and shrieks in a mix of confusion and surprise.


	2. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Djeeta and Joker have a talk over cups of coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GW? Don't know her. 
> 
> This chapter contains vague gbf main story spoilers, and p5 spoilers all the way till just before the boss of the 7th palace. New tags have also been added. (Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied/Referenced Character Death, and a very obvious character) Enjoy!

“Sorry for the trouble.”

“It’s fine, we were just surprised is all!” Djeeta says, waving his concern away with a free hand. She can hear the sounds of Sandalphon making coffee in the kitchen, the smell and sounds are unmistakable. 

“Not just that,” Joker says as if cutting in, “I mean for letting us stay, too.” Even behind his mask, she can see the gratefulness as he closes his eyes and bows his head.

“It’s nothing,” she says while gesturing for him to raise his head, and he does so obediently. “It’ll worry us instead if we let you guys wander around without a place to stay.”

“Is that so?” His tone is a blend of curiosity and mischief, and it reminds her of herself.

“Of course! We’re friends, after all,” she doesn’t take the bait, instead saying her honest thoughts. Joker raises a hand to cover his mouth, but his smile reaches his eyes.

“That’s true,” he says after putting his hands back down onto the table. His arms are crossed, but only loosely. 

“So,” Djeeta places her elbows on the table and intertwines her fingers, laying her chin snug on top of it. “I bet a lot’s happened since the last time you guys came over, right?”

He nods, then tilts his head. “And?”

“You  _ must _ have stories to tell,” she says firmly, fully interested in what the Phantom Thieves have done since the last time they exchanged information. Can you blame her? Changing people’s hearts by fighting monsters and stealing treasure sounds like a complete fantasy novel to her.

“What do you want to hear?” he asks, bending his neck to lean closer. His shoulders still look tense. 

“Everything,” she says with a grin. He laughs a little, and humors her.

He starts talking about a floating bank, preying on people in a place called ‘Shibuya’, which seems to be as large as a medium-sized island. Then about their new member, Queen, who was the one with the spiky shoulder pads stood near table. After that they went to a pyramid to rescue a girl, who turns out to be their new member, Oracle. A while after the pyramid, Mona got into an argument and temporarily separated. The separation is what lead to them meeting their last new member, Noir, and then they tackled a space station.

“Space station?” She asks, cutting his reminiscing off to a temporary stop.

“Mhm,” he lets out while nodding, and that doesn’t really explain anything, does it.

“No, I mean. What’s space?” Station, she understands. But she has only heard of ‘space’ once before, and that’s from Zooey of all people.

“Space is beyond the skies?” He’s answering her, but it comes out as another question. It looks like they’re both confused.

“Never mind, just continue.” She gestures to let it drop, and assumes her hands in their previous position. She’ll poke Zooey for answers later.

“If you insist,” he says and intends to continue, but he’s interrupted when Sandalphon comes into the room with two cups of coffee. He places them in front of herself and Joker, and starts walking back to the kitchen without a word.

“Thanks for the coffee,” she says, holding the cup up to take in the scent of freshly brewed coffee.

“I just made too much,” is all she gets as a reply, and the sound of heels fade into the kitchen again. Joker just watches the scene quietly, his face suggesting that he’s more than a bit mystified at what just occurred in front of him. 

“He’s just not honest,” she says while taking a drink of her coffee, and he follows. After he swallows a mouthful, his face seems to bloom while stars practically appear in his eyes. She smiles and after indulging in coffee for a moment, gestures for him to continue his story.

He does, and says that they successfully stole the treasure from the space station, but the guy they helped ends up dead instead. She recoils in surprise, and doesn’t miss the sudden frustration dripping from his tone. The next place they went to was a casino, but before they went in, they had to deal with this detective guy that ends up becoming their teammate, who is called Crow.

Even saying his name sounds like he needs to forcefully spit it out. And she understands why when he narrowly escapes death. 

“While the world thought I was dead, we went after the guy using Crow, who had a ship-”

“Wait wait,” she cuts him off, placing the coffee cup back onto its saucer. “You were dead?”

“The world thought I was dead,” he repeats in clarification, a raised finger in the air. “I wasn’t. The me that died was a fake,” he says it simply, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“So you cheated death?” She says, pointing a finger at him. He laughs.

“That’s one way of putting it,” he says, and she notices how his shoulders are slightly lower, as if they’ve sunken a little. Good, he’s more relaxed now, even if the topic has taken quite a drastic turn.

“Man, being the leader is a pain, huh,” she says, making sure he knows that she’s just joking and not meaning it seriously.

“Mhm,” he says with a nod. “Considering I almost died by being shot in the head,” he says as if stating facts. He lifts the finger tracing the rim of his cup and mimics a gun firing to the side of his head with two fingers, complete with a whispered ‘bang’ sound effect.

“At least it’s just once. I narrowly escaped death three times,” she says casually, and raises her fingers to count as she continues. “Chomped by a Hydra, thrown off an island, and the other time I jumped off another island to save someone.”

“I guess cheating death is included in the list of what a leader needs to do,” he replies with a shrug that looks slightly forced.

“You two have _ issues _ ,” Sandalphon calls out from the kitchen, sounding nothing less than scandalized. Djeeta laughs.

Once her laughter dies down, she turns to notice Joker staring at the coffee in his hands. She doesn’t know how to describe it, but the look in his eyes reminds her of what she’s seen on another pair of brown eyes, and immediately she’s concerned.

“Joker?” She calls out softly, but he’s still startled. She watches as he stares at her for a moment, the quietness in the air this time feeling much different from the other times. 

“Is something wrong?” The moment she says it, he quickly looks away. 

“No, it’s nothing,” he says, not meeting her eyes. His tone is very familiar to her, because she’s used that tone too many times to count, when the crew members hounded her for feelings and thoughts that she would rather not tell them. Because she’s the Captain.

“It’s not nothing,” she says, firmly in a way that borderlines on commanding. “Especially if it’s bothering you.”

He doesn’t reply, and she lets out a sigh. She lifts her cup to take a sip while she chooses her words in her head, and it feels like she’s walking on eggshells, taking care to avoid words that might make him clam up and hide behind a mask again.

“We’re both leaders,” she starts, making sure to look him in the eye. “You can tell me. I can assure you it won’t drag me down, seeing as I’m not one of your group.”

It’s like taking a shot in the dark, but her words work when the look in his eyes change into another look. A more vulnerable one. 

“Being the leader, it’s…” he stops, as if at a loss of words. She can understand why. “It’s not easy.”

Djeeta nods, but says nothing. Her hands drop onto her lap as he continues to speak.

“I have to adapt to situations as they happen. If I make a wrong choice and something bad happens, it’ll be all my fault.” 

The way he talks about it, she can tell he’s been keeping it bottled up for a long time. The subject and the way he says it is unsettling, like she’s looking into a mirror, and the one that’s talking their feelings out is another her.

“I even let myself get caught, so Ake- Crow would think that I’m dead and we can strike at his boss without worry.” His grip on the coffee cup tightens. “The plan was risky, even if it was well thought out. But I thought-” His voice breaks, and he takes a deep breath. 

“I didn’t-, they drugged me and tortured me to get information. I had to endure it, for the plan to go smoothly, so the others wouldn’t be next. I’m the leader, I had to do it,” he says, as if there was no other choice, and she wants nothing but to say that he always had a choice. 

“I try to forget about it, but if I even think about a syringe, then I remember the state I was in, then the memories come flooding back,” he says, his mouth closing into a thin line when he’s finished. He sounds so defeated, and she’s reminded that in some situations, being dead or unconscious is better than being alive and feeling it all happen in front of your eyes.

(His hands had stopped a while ago. What he’s supposed to do completely forgotten as he listens to the conversation happening beyond the doorway. He’s biting his lower lip hard enough to bleed. 

He doesn’t think of a severed head and six white wings stained with red, he _ doesn’t _ .)

“Then,” he suddenly says again, and she tries to brace herself as much as she can. “Then Crow died in front of our eyes.”

She sucks in a breath, and the room feels so much colder.

“He was a murderer, but he didn’t deserve to die.” No one deserves to die. “He was right in front of us. I could’ve done something, anything, but-” 

“Could you really have done something?” She cuts in, blunt and emotionless. It catches him off guard, evident in the way his breath hitches. 

“There was a wall between us, but-”

“Joker,” she cuts him off again, lifting her hands from her lap and placing them palm down onto the table as she stands up. “There was nothing you could’ve done.”

He stares at her, the look in his eyes a blizzard of emotions. A blizzard filled with shock, disgust, and too many other conflicting emotions to name. It causes her to sit down, her hands going back to tightly grip her skirt.

“There are times no matter how much you believe you could’ve done something to change the result, no matter how much you blame it on yourself-” her voice catches on something, and she lets out a breath to calm down. She can’t break down when he’s already broken. “You can’t save everyone.”

The kingdom they lost to the Wall, the islands they lost in the cataclysms, the people that got dragged into so many tragedies that she can’t even keep track of anymore.

She is the Singularity, but even she can’t save everyone.

The look in his eyes disappear, and Joker takes a deep breath. He loosens his grip, and takes a drink of the coffee. It’s probably lukewarm at best and cold at worst by now. She lets the silence stretch, and takes a drink out of her own coffee. She was a bit worked up there, too.

“You’re right,” he finally says, after a long moment. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” she says quickly, placing the cup back onto its saucer. It grows silent again, until she lets out a little laugh.

“We’ve both been through a lot, huh?” As if that can summarize their entire conversation. He laughs a bit too.

“Yeah,” he says, fiddling with the almost empty cup. She looks at the movement of his hands, then raises her eyes to look at his.

“I’m always happy to lend an ear,” she says in a certain tone to make sure that he’ll keep it in mind. “We leaders have to stick together, after all.”

He looks down, then nods firmly. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing,” she says, and the silence this time feels lighter. While he finishes drinking his cup, she smiles behind hers. 

He places the empty cup onto its saucer, and the smile on his face reaches his dark gray eyes through the mask.

The hard-fought peace is broken by a loud yell.

"Hey, Joker!" Both of them look towards the doorway, and they see Skull with a large grin on his face, standing beside him is a smiling Panther. "Stop moping around in here and come up to the deck! The view is amazing up here!"

She sees the surprise appear and fade from his face and he nods, pushing his chair away to get up. But he seems to pause and turn to look at her, the apology clear in his eyes. She may be only attracted to girls, but she can admit to herself that he looks kinda cute like this, looking at her as if he needs her permission to leave the room.

"Go on," she says with a wave of her hand, the other one has a firm grip on her cup. "I'll join you later." She eyes the coffee in her cup, then a quick glance to the kitchen doorway.

Joker nods, and fully gets up from his seat to join his friends. She doesn't say anything until the footsteps fade into silence, until she turns to the doorway to the kitchen. Sandalphon has the mind to continue moving his hands, wiping the plate in his hand that is already long dry.

"He's the Singularity of that world," she says, making sure a certain someone in the kitchen knows that she’s talking to him. It comes out as a statement, nothing like a question. "Am I right?"

Sandalphon sighs and puts the things in his hands down onto the table. "Perhaps."

(He doesn't tell her of a man with a large nose, commanding a room that shouldn't exist, yet does.

It's of another world, it's none of his business.)

She laughs a little, then drains the coffee from her cup.

"Well, I'll make sure he has plenty of time to unwind while he's here." 

"Do you hate it?" The subject of his question is left unsaid, but she knows what he's talking about all the same. 

"Nah. Sure, being Captain is a pain at times, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world." She makes firm eye contact with Sandalphon when he turns to stare at her.

"Whatever you say."


End file.
